PM hails ‘troubled’ Koh Kong project

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday lauded the Chinese developer behind Koh Kong province’s $3.8 billion tourism project, despite it causing a decade-long dispute with the villagers there.

“The Union Development Group [UDG] transformed the quiet area in Koh Kong province into an attractive tourist site,” Hun Sen said, as quoted by the Ministry of Tourism on its Facebook page on Saturday.

The remark was made during an inspection to UDG’s project site in Botum Sakor district, as part of the prime minister’s agenda in the province while attending the 7th Sea Festival.

A villager among hundreds of families embroiled in the decade-old row with the company did not share the same sentiment.

Saing Puy, from Kiri Sakor district’s Koh Sdech commune, called on the company to recompense the villagers for the loss of their agricultural land.

Some villagers, she added, were persuaded and threatened by the local authorities to accept insufficient compensation. Some did not even receive any, Puy claimed.http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-hails-troubled-koh-kong-project

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